Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology which periodically collects data from an image forming device.
Description of the Related Art
Management devices have previously been proposed for acquiring and managing data such as operational information of image forming devices including printers or multifunction printers. When the image forming devices managed by management devices increase, the number of management devices also must increase. Therefore, from the standpoint of cost reduction and maintenance of management devices, it would be desirable to enable management of a greater number of image forming devices by a single management device. Moreover, in recent years, image forming devices have been proposed which economize on power consumption by setting the power to a power saving mode or by turning the power off at times of non-use in order to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-134584 discloses a technology in which an image forming device notifies a management device immediately before a power saving function is activated, and the management device that receives the notification collects job log information of the image forming device that is the management subject. According to this technology, a management device is able to efficiently conduct data collection with respect to an image forming device provided with a power status notification function.
However, although the management device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-134584 is able to efficiently conduct data collection with respect to an image forming device that is provided with a power status notification function, it is not able to efficiently conduct data collection with respect to an image forming device that is not provided with a power status notification function. For example, when the power of an image forming device that is not provided with a power status notification function is turned off, the management device is unable to detect it. As data acquisition cannot be carried out when data acquisition is attempted with respect to an image forming device whose power has been turned off, the management device enters standby until a timeout interval has elapsed. As a result, the time required for data collection is prolonged. Furthermore, when the number of image forming devices managed by a management device increases, a long period of time is required in order for the management device to conduct data collection from all the image forming devices. That is, the data collection interval is further prolonged. When the data collection interval is prolonged, the possibility increases that data loss may occur. This is because when the data volume of an image forming device of low data retention capacity reaches a maximum data volume, old data is deleted.